You're The Reason I Come Home
by Madam Mare
Summary: A peak into random moments of Jane and Maura's lives.


Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.  
>Note: My first R&amp;I fic. Nervous! They range from drabbles to ficlets, and are in not in any chronological order. I used the lyrics from Ron Pope's beautiful song, You're The Reason I Come Home as prompts. Check it out... <p>

**1. Watching you watching me**

It's late, past one in the morning, when we finally collapse into bed. My apartment, since as the ever practical Maura pointed out, was closer. The neighbors in 13B are arguing again and I whisper into Maura's ear that one day we will be called to work a scene there. I can feel her breathing hesitate as she is unsure whether I am serious or not, but then I feel her relax against me and I know she is smiling. She rolls over to face me and our eyes meet in the dark. She smiles at me and I cant help but to smile back. By morning she will be wrapped in my arms, but for now, we are content to just become lost in each other until we drift off. 

**2. Hands in the fallen snow**

I'm walking up the steps when I am stopped by a loud thwack. The accompanying cold wetness that is rapidly spreading down my neck and shoulders can only mean one thing. It's winter in Boston and Maura has just declared war!

I slowly spin around to face her. Her cheeks are tinged pink from the cold and she has a smile on her face. The same smile she pulls out whenever she thinks I might get mad at her. I make a big show of wiping the remnants of the snowball off of me all the while giving her a glare. Bending down I pick up a large clump of snow and start molding it together. Its the perfect snowball snow, not too powdery, not to slushy...its the kind of snow Frankie used to hate when we were kids.

"Jane, what are you," She is cut off when my snowball takes flight and explodes beautifully dead center in her chest.

Her jaw drops as she looks at me incredulously, "I can't believe...this is Burberry Jane!" She is pouting but I can see the sparkle in her eye.

"Sorry?" I offer with a grin, but my tone gives away that I am anything but.

"Burberry Jane! Down Burberry! You cant get down wet."

Feeling a google speech coming on I step up to her and whisper, "I'll get it specially dry cleaned for you."

"Not to the place where you took my dress!"

I wisely don't mention that she is the one that started the impromptu food fight that led to her dress being soiled, which the dry cleaners then ruined.

I quickly promise a different place, sealing the deal with a kiss. What Maura didn't know was that I still had snow in my hand and while she was distracted, I quickly stuffed it down the back of her jacket. She shrieks as she pulls away from me and starts jumping in place trying to dislodge the snow.

Before I know it, I am laid out on my back in the middle of the sidewalk with Maura pinning me down, a grin on her face.

"What the hell, Maur?" I cant help but laugh at how we must look to passerbys right now.

"O Goshi," She states matter-of-factly.

"What the hell did I ever do to Yoshi?"

She fixes me with her stare that has come to replace her 'language Jane!' reproach. "Not Yoshi, O Goshi, its Japanese for hip throw. Its a fairly standard Judo throwing technique. Did you know that Jigoro Kano was the founder of Judo and that when he was growing up,"

"Nope," I teasingly cut her off.

By the time I manage to flip her over and gain the upper hand, an all out snow war had ensued. Ten minutes later we collapsed against each other exhausted, breathing heavily and soaking wet.

"I can't feel my hands," I moan.

"You're shivering," Maura observes.

"Thank you Captain Obvious, so are you."

"Well, shivering is the bodies way of keeping itself warm."

"Talking google, hush!" I place a frozen finger across her lips, "I'm more interested in other ways of warming up."

"Oh!" She exclaims with a bright smile before leaning over, her lips stopping millimeters away from my own, "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?"

This time when I shiver, its not from the cold. 

**3. You're the reason I come home**

"She just got here, thank you Vince," I hear her voice on the phone in the other room. Exhausted, I kick off my snow covered boots and drop my keys on the table by the door. Jo jumps excitedly at my feet but her excited yapping barely registers.

"Jane…" and then her arms are around me, "you're shaking."

"Maur, I…he…" I uncharacteristically trip over my words.

"I know Jane, I know," her words sooth my raw soul and her hands make soft circles on my back, relaxing taunt muscles. She backs me up to the couch, gently pushing me down onto it. Our eyes lock as she unzips my ice covered jacket and pulls it away from my body. "You walked home," she murmurs, not looking for confirmation, as she unwinds the frozen scarf from my neck. The stiff gloves are popped off of my hands and she rubs my numb digits briskly, warming them with her own.

The next thing I know a steaming hot mug is being pressed into my hands even though I don't remember Maura leaving the room to get it. I drink it quickly, the burning sensation on my tongue and throat not even registering. Maura then tugs me to my feet and pulls me towards the bedroom. Nimble fingers expertly pop buttons open, flick a bra clasp, and push pants down from my hips. The shed garments are placed in the laundry basket and soon Maura is maneuvering me into flannel bottoms and a cotton tee and pushing me towards the turned down bed.

Her smaller frame spoons me from behind, our legs naturally entangling and I crumble. "He was only 14 Maura…just a baby…" tears soak my pillow as guilt overcomes me.

Maura pulls me impossibly close, entwining our fingers and begins to speak softly into my ear, "Honey, he had a gun on Barry. He didn't give you a choice." She voices what I knew deep down inside and its then that I allow myself to believe it.

If this had happened three years ago, I would be stumbling around a bar somewhere, numbing my feelings with alcohol, but somehow Maura had slipped past all of my defenses and broken down the walls around my heart. Before I even realized it she had become home. 

**4. Breathe you in deep**

She finally fell asleep, although I don't know if it was the result of sheer exhaustion, or the sleeping pill I insisted she take. Frost and Korsak are standing guard in the living room, and through the window I can see a squad car along with an unmarked car parked outside the apartment. Despite my own exhaustion, I am too wired to sleep. I almost lost her today...the result of a Hoyt obsessed woman. She came to the precinct with a lunch delivery for Jane, claiming it was ordered "with love from 'M'" when she dropped it off. If she didn't see the Chinese lettering on the takeout bag to tip her off to get out of the way in time she would have been in direct line of the timed blast. I never thought I would see the day where I would be thankful for the night we got food poisoning from some bad Chinese food. After that night, we both swore off it.

I let out a sigh and my breath fogs up the window. Absentmindedly I trace a pattern in the glass with my finger but my thoughts are broken when she shifts on the bed and mumbles my name. Stepping away from the window I slide into bed behind her, wrapping myself around her, I breathe her in, "I'm here Jane, I'm here." 

**5. Effortlessly**

On paper, they never should have worked. One a blue collar cop and the other a trust fund doctor, yet somehow they clicked from the first day they met. Jane was her usual crabby self at the scene of a homicide waiting for the new ME to show up to examine the body and release the scene, so when Maura showed up in her shiny Mercedes and an outfit that probably cost what Jane made in six months. Jane had made a smart comment about just how much Chief Medical Examiners made these days, expecting to intimidate the smaller woman. However, she was not expecting the response that she got. Maura paused for a moment and then told Jane her annual salary and then proceeded to break it down to an average hourly wage. Jane couldn't help herself and she cracked a genuine smile and openly laughed. When she saw Maura's wide smile in return she knew right then that they would be friends. She also quickly figured out that Maura was anything but what she had expected.

Their relationship progressed organically, neither able to pinpoint when they went from friends to something more, because past that awkward getting to know you phase, the only difference in their relationship was the sexual intimacy, and most had assumed it had been there all along. 

**6. Something perfect**

I used to tease Maura that she would never be in a lasting relationship because she was looking for what didn't exist...perfection. She would then go into an hour long lecture that there no such thing as perfect and something about oxidative stress, bilateral asymmetry, and leg length and I would just nod every now and then and mumble a mmm-hmm here and there.

Then she paused and fixed me with a look that I knew all too well, "You're not even listening are you?"

I pressed my lips together trying to think of an appropriate response, but she surprised me when she rolled her eyes with a smile and said, "Never mind."

Now, here I am propped up in a hospital bed, pleading with Maura to let me look at my surgical site from my self inflicted gunshot wound. Finally she relents and assists me in pulling the bandage aside so I can assess the damage for myself.

"That's not so bad," I admit after a thorough inspection.

"Sit up," she softly commands and holds out her hands to me. I give her a puzzled look but comply, placing my hands in hers and allow her to slowly pull me upright. She pulls a compact out of her purse and hands it to me before removing the rest of my bandage. I angle the mirror so I can see my back but have to quickly avert my eyes as I feel bile rise in my throat.

"Shit," I gasp out.

Maura quickly bandages me back up and helps me settle back onto the bed but I notice her face is suddenly shades paler and she is fidgeting with her hands.

"I'm sorry Maura," I guess seeing the severity of the injury made me realize what she had gone through the past week.

"Don't ever do something like that again," she says softly, averting her eyes.

Trying to lighten the mood I grin at her, "First my hands, now this…I'm such a mess…"

"You're perfect," she breathes, effectively cutting me off.

"I thought there was no such thing as perfect?"

She looks at me steadily, "I was wrong." 

~Finis~


End file.
